What are the best keyword research strategies for site migration and redesign?

Auditing current keywords is a critical step in SEO that should not be overlooked during site migration or redesign. As an SEO expert, I've seen that understanding the performance of your existing keywords provides a benchmark for future optimization. By categorizing keywords, you can align them more effectively with user intent and the customer journey. This strategic approach ensures that you maintain any existing SEO equity and identify opportunities to improve upon it, which is essential for a seamless transition and continued online growth.

Before digging into the details, let’s list the benefits of spending the extra time, effort and budget on integrating SEO strategies into your redesign or site migration process: 1. You’ll know more about what your audience is looking for and how they’re looking for it. 2. You’ll make sure your users find their way to your new site. 3. You’ll maximize ROI. A new website costs a lot of money, so you’ll want to incorporate SEO strategies to maximize its ROI. Here's few steps should be taken care of- 1. Branding. 2. Keyword reserach & analysis. 3. Sitemap. 4. Wireframes. 5. Content planning & development. 6. Technical SEO implementations. 7. Redirects. 8. Website review & pre prod testing and SEO audit.

When migrating or redesigning a site, focus on maintaining keyword relevance and addressing any gaps. Start by auditing existing keywords and analyzing competitors. Utilize tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to identify relevant keywords. Consider user intent and search volume to prioritize keywords. Optimize site structure and content around these keywords, ensuring they align with the new design and navigation. Additionally, monitor rankings post-migration and make adjustments as needed to maintain visibility and traffic.

Start by creating a list of the top 20% pages bringing in 80% of traffic. You can also include your top 20% money making pages. Analyse these pages for keyword they rank for vs keywords you want them to rank for. Use Search Console for this. Include ranking positions for these keywords too. Identify any cannibalisation issues between pages to stop them from competing with each other. Create a final list of pages with "keywords they rank for", ranking position and keyword opportunities. Repeat for different search intent types.

Wondering about the best keyword research strategies for site migration and redesign? Let's dive into some expert insights! 1. Conduct a comprehensive audit of current keywords and their performance 2. Identify high-performing keywords and prioritize them for the new site 3. Analyze competitors' keyword strategies to uncover new opportunities 4. Utilize tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs for in-depth research Ready to boost your site's visibility during migration? Let's strategize together!

For semantic keyword research, Ahrefs is a robust tool, offering extensive data for uncovering keywords with high potential. For identifying trends, consider Trend Hunter AI and Trendly, which utilize AI to detect emerging patterns and topics relevant to your niche, enhancing your content strategy's effectiveness.

When it comes to keyword research for site migration and redesign, a thorough approach is crucial. Start by analyzing your current keywords and rankings to identify top-performing content. Then, consider your target audience's search intent and behavior to discover new keywords. Leverage tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, and Ahrefs for in-depth keyword analysis. Additionally, explore related search terms and long-tail keywords to expand your keyword list. Lastly, monitor your keyword performance post-migration to ensure continued SEO success.

This is also a great time to review existing keyword list and add new seed/phrase/long tailed keywords. Keep an eye out for your product related developments and anticipate if this could impact search trends and behaviour in coming times. Keeping up to date with latest industry trends will also help gauge user pulse. Adding new keywords plus pages targeted at this stage will also help you incorporate any design related changes necessary for better SUX. You can also create SEO strategies in terms of url structure, page content and layout etc.

Using Ahrefs can streamline the process of mapping keywords to pages, allowing you to align your content strategy with targeted keywords. This can help optimize each page for specific search queries, enhancing your site's SEO structure.

While having a list of the most relevant and valuable keywords to target is a good start, understanding how to structure the page with the proper use of headings, content covered, usage of images and media will greatly improve engagement and provide the most value to users. Avoid using low-quality or AI-generated copy without it being vetted by an expert and/or copywriter to ensure content is written specifically for the intended audience and not search engines.

When migrating, it's a fresh start and an opportunity to incorporate changes to existing SEO issues. You can work on : On-page SEO signals: - Meta tags - Page title - Heading structure - Keyword placement - Key conversion signals (if it's a transactional page) - Signals to build trust like shipping info, payment security etc (if it's a transactional page) - Internal linking (link transactional intent pages with informational intent pages). - Image optimisation - alt text, rendering, size, format - Font optimisation for faster loading - Code structure especially use of JS - Nested schema markup - Additional content sections per search demand (for blog articles).